A Cartoon Cartoons Christmas
A Cartoon Cartoons Christmas is holiday movie, which serves as an in name only continuation of Cartoon Cartoons Unite. The film was originally set to be released on Christmas Eve of 2014, but has been pushed to the 22nd. The film is directed and written by Richard Roberts and produced by Super Cool Productions and Lantern Features for Cartoon Network. The film has received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and was a box-office flop. Plot The film centers around characters from modern Cartoon Network shows being together for Christmas and having everyone partake in the holiday festivities. However, this is challenged by a grumpy man who merely wants to be by himself, leaving it up to the toons to spread Christmas joy to the grump. Production In spite of the title, this movie has little to do with Cartoon Cartoons Unite, and is instead going to be produced by Cartoon Network exclusively. The film also lacks legitimate Cartoon Cartoons, instead electing to pass the new shows off as Cartoon Cartoons. This was the first movie produced by Lantern Features after seven years of dormancy. Following the release of the movie, Lantern was sold to Lionsgate. Reception Box-Office Having a budged of $980,000, the film only grossed $258,945. Critics The film has received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and fans of CCU. The film has a 11% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 21/100 on Metacritic, indicating an overall poor reception. The film was mainly criticized for passing itself off as a continuation of Cartoon Cartoons Unite, in spite of ignoring all continuity in CCU, not including characters from the previous movie and including Mordecai and Rigby in spite of the two getting killed off in CCU. Critics also noted the faulty animation and were especially harsh towards the dialogue. Rolling Stone gave the film zero out of four stars, claiming that "it's an irritating waste of digital ink even for fans of the shows included." IGN criticized the movie for not utilizing their sources in a good way, instead somehow making them look worse for fans and haters alike. Variety claimed the movie was not suited for a theatrical release, and that it would've been better as a TV movie that would be aired once and never again. Reactions from CCU Alumni/Actors The people behind CCU were each very critical of the movie, and all of them have tried to prevent people from seeing it, which ultimately affected the movie's box-office earnings. Lilly Laney was, at first, neutral to the movie, stating "If they want to release such a movie, they have the right, but I personally don't see it making anyone's day." After seeing the movie, she became more negative. "At first I thought it would've been harmless, a popcorn flick at best. I don't usually take the public's word on a movie's reception... but then I saw the damn thing, the public's right." Frank Novice has been critical of the movie since the start. "Before I give everyone the wrong idea, let me make this clear. I don't have anything against Cartoon Network's newer programs, but when it comes to something like this, especially when the writers have the gall to claim it connects to Cartoons Unite, we have a problem." Novice was mostly critical of the dialogue. "Adults usually complain about newer cartoons because they're often forced to watch them with their kids, and they often find it difficult to connect to the humor presented in them. The movie amped up Network's shows to near intolerable levels, having them rack out corny one liners and making everyone hate them. If my kids wanted me to watch something like this, it would be followed by a lifetime of silence." Novice closed his thoughts by saying, "I'm not promoting any hate at the shows featured, they're fine enough for their intended demographic, but Cartoon Cartoons Christmas is what you should be putting your hate toward." The overall poor performance of ACCC has encouraged the producers to work on a sequel to CCU, with a third one being made soon after. The owners of Harvest Entertainment were caught loitering around cinemas, attempting to prevent people from seeing the movie. Owen Proctor has even claimed that if anyone who saw the movie ran into him, he'd give the viewers a refund. Director Controversy Richard Roberts, the director and writer of the movie reacted poorly to the criticism the movie received. He responded by attacking his critics, flagging negative reviews of his movie on YouTube and attacking people who voice their opinions on them. He has also threatened to assault Page but was caught before he could do so. In response to the flagging, Page offered to back up the uploader's reviews and share them on his and Harvest's website.